Unreported / Non-Citable
Background
D. Wilson Construction Co. petitioned for a writ of mandamus directing the trial court to grant its motion to dismiss a petition for presuit discovery under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 202. The Rule 202 petition sought the deposition of the company’s corporate representative.
After the court of appeals ordered the real parties in interest to respond to the mandamus petition, they informed the court that they had filed a notice of nonsuit without prejudice in the underlying proceeding on October 15, 2026. The notice stated that they no longer wished to pursue the requested presuit deposition.
The Court’s Holding
The court held that the nonsuit of the underlying Rule 202 proceeding rendered D. Wilson Construction Co.’s mandamus petition moot. Because the real parties in interest had withdrawn the proceeding that the company sought to have dismissed, there was no longer a live controversy requiring mandamus relief.
Accordingly, the court dismissed the petition for writ of mandamus as moot. It did not decide whether the trial court should have granted the company’s motion to dismiss the Rule 202 petition.
Key Takeaways
- A mandamus petition may become moot when the underlying proceeding giving rise to the requested relief is nonsuited.
- The real parties in interest nonsuited their Rule 202 presuit-discovery petition without prejudice and abandoned the requested corporate-representative deposition.
- The appellate court dismissed the mandamus proceeding without reaching the merits of the relator’s challenge.
Why It Matters
The opinion illustrates that extraordinary appellate relief requires a continuing, live dispute. Once the challenged presuit-discovery proceeding was withdrawn, an order compelling its dismissal would have served no practical purpose.